The International Handbook of Black Community Mental Health

by Richard J. Major, Karen Carberry MSc, Dip.Psych., Theodore S. Ransaw

Overview

This is the first international handbook on Black community mental health, focussing on key issues including stereotypes in Mental health, misdiagnoses, and inequalities/discrimination around access, services and provisions. Making use of a cultural competence framework throughout, the book covers many of the classic mental health/developmental areas such as schizophrenia, mental health disorders, ASD and ADHD, but it also looks at more controversial areas in mental health, like inequalities, racism and discrimination both in practice and in graduate school training and the supervisory experiences of black students in universities. Unique among traditional academic texts addressing mental health, the book presents rich personal accounts from Black therapists and students. Many Black students who are training to become therapists or academics in mental health report negative experiences with white university staff in terms of a lack of support, encouragement, resulting in poor graduation outcomes.While institutional racism is a major issue both in society and universities, the editors of this Handbook take personal-level racism, microaggression and everyday racism as better models for understanding and analysing both these students; racialised interaction/communication experiences with white staff at university, as well as the racialised communications and inequalities in misdiagnoses, access to services and provisions in healthcare settings with white managers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781839099656
Publisher:	Emerald Publishing Limited
Publication date:	06/08/2020
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr. Richard Majors is a Counselling Psychologist and Honorary Professor at the University of Colorado in the United States, who has been living and working in the UK for over 20 years. He is the founder and former deputy editor of the Journal of African American Studies (formerly the Journal of African American Men), one of the largest ethnic journals in the US. He also is a former Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard, Majors co-founded the National Council of African American Men (NCAAM), one of the first umbrella groups in the United States for African American males. He was a Senior Research Associate at the prestigious Urban Institute in Washington, DC for two years. In 1996/97, prior to moving to the UK, he was appointed a Leverhulme Visiting Fellow for Research. In 2000 he was appointed a Canterbury Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Dr. Majors wrote the lead psychological expert statement, in the UK high court for the landmark case, SGvs St. Gregorys Science School, which successfully overturned previous policy and legislation that prevented Black children from being able to wear culture-specific hairstyles in school. Dr. Majors has also met with members of the Clinton Administration to discuss youth policy. He is the author/co-author of seven books and dozens of scholarly articles. His book Cool Pose: The Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America (1992) was submitted for Pulitzer Prize by the publisher and was on the publisher bestsellers’ list in 1992. Cool Pose is considered a classic in the field and is one of the most cited books in race relations and gender in the US. Previously, in the UK he was selected to be on a Ministerial Working Group on Education and Gangs. Majors was selected in 2015 to receive the Warrior Award from the International Colloquium on Education for his longstanding service, research and leadership on education, globally. In 2016 he was shortlisted, for the Medical Livewire Global Award for his work in the field of psychology. Dr. Majors was again honoured in 2018 by Medical Livewire for his outstanding work in the field of psychology and this time was bestowed with their prestigious award: 'Psychology Professional of The Year'. In 2019, he received the Expert Witness Award from Lawyer Monthly Magazine, in recognition of his specialised knowledge and experience within the area of Trans-cultural Psychology.

Karen Carberry, MSc, Dip.Psych. is a Black British Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, Consultant Family Therapist of Orri - Specialist Day Treatment for Eating Disorders,  AFT Registered Systemic Supervisor and a Fellow of the Asian Academy of Family Therapy (AAFT). Karen gained her Master's Degree from the Institute of Family Therapy in London and Birkbeck College, University of London. In addition to her clinical inpatient work in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) and adult psychiatry, Karen has managed several family centres and contact centres for divorced/estranged parents and their children. Karen also has extensive clinical specialism in working with all parties affected by adoption. As a practitioner-scholar, she has been involved in a variety of academic activities both nationally and internationally, and written book reviews for various publishers. Karen has presented papers, lectures and conducted a number of masterclasses/seminars in the UK, Jamaica, Indonesia, Haiti, Singapore, and the Dominican Republic amongst other countries.

Dr. Theodore S. Ransaw received his Bachelor’s as well as Master’s Degrees in Communication Studies and his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  His Doctorate is in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Multicultural and International Education.  Currently he is a K-12 Outreach Specialist in the College of Education at Michigan State Universityand Core Faculty in African and African American Studies, also at MSU.  His research centers on cognition of identity and schooling.  He looks at what fathers do to help their children get ahead in school, the relationship between Black male identity and educational outcomes, and the role student identity plays in education.  He also served as a director of four mentorship programs at three at-risk schools and as an achievement gap specialist for males of color.  Dr.Ransaw is a certified education coach, and education consultant.   He is also a co-editor of the Handbook of Research on Black Males, and the author of the Art of Being Cool: The Pursuit of Black Masculinity.

Table of Contents

Black Mental Health and the New Millennium: Historical and Current Perspective on Cultural Trauma and ‘Everyday’ Racism in White Mental Health Spaces — The Impact on the Psychological Well-being of Black Mental Health Professionals; Richard Majors

Chapter 1. Systemic Racism: Big, Black, Mad and Dangerous in the Criminal Justice System; Sharon Walker        
Chapter 2. In the name of our humanity: challenging academic racism and its effects on the emotional wellbeing of women of colour professors; Philomena Essed and Karen Carberry           
Chapter 3. Racial Battle Fatigue: The Long-Term Effects of Racial Microaggressions on African American Boys and Men; William Smith, R. David and G. Stanton 
Chapter 4. Racism in Academia: (How to) Stay Black, Sane and Proud as the doctoral supervisory relationship implodes; Sharon Walker             
Chapter 5. Implicit Provider Bias and its Implications for Black/African American Mental Health; Andra D Rivers Johnson              
Chapter 6. Thirty years of Black History Month and thirty years of overrepresentation in the mental health system; Patrick Vernon
Chapter 7. Race and Risk – exploring UK social policy and the development of modern mental health; Patricia Clarke               
Chapter 8. Remaining Mindful about Young People; Mhemooda Malek and Simon Newitt              
Chapter 9. Cultural competencies in delivering counselling and psychotherapy services to a black multi-cultural population: time for change and action; Nicholas Banks 
Chapter 10. Social and Emotional Education and Emotional Wellness:  A Cultural Competence Model for Black Boys and Teachers; Richard Majors, Llewellyn E Simmons and Corneilus Ani     
Chapter 11. ASD & Cultural Competence: An ASD Multi-Cultural  Treatment Led Model; Mary Henderson and Richard Majors
Chapter 12. Moving Young Black Men Beyond Survival Mode: Protective Factors for Their Mental Health; Ivan Juzang               
Chapter 13. African Americans and the Vocational Rehabilitation Service System in the United States: The Impact on Mental Health; Fabricio E Balcazar and Julie Vryhof 
Chapter 14: Targeted Intervention in Education and the Empowerment and Emotional Well-Being of Black Boys; Cheron Byfield and Tony Talburt
Chapter 15. Towards a position of Spiritual Reflexivity as a resource: Emerging themes and issues for systemic practice, leadership and supervision within Black mental health; Maureen Greaves           
Chapter 16. “Marginal Leaders”: Making Visible the Leadership Experiences of Black Women in a Therapeutic Service for Disenfranchised Young People; Romana Farooq and Tania Rodrigues                
Chapter 17. 40 Years in The Wilderness: A Review of Systemic Barriers to Reducing The Over-representation of Black Men in the UK Psychiatric System; Gail Coleman-Oluwabusola   
Chapter 18. Oppositional and Defiant Behaviours Among Black Boys in Schools: Techniques to Facilitate Change; Steve Clarke         
Chapter 19. Black Therapists – White Families, therapists’ perceptions of cultural competence in clinical practice; Karen Carberry and Belinda Brooks-Gordon        
Chapter 20. Transracial Adoption and Mental Health; Nicholas Banks      
Chapter 21. Dementia and its impact on minority ethnic and migrant communities; David Trusswell
Chapter 22. Mental Health/Illness Revisited in People of African Caribbean Heritage in Britain; Tony Leiba and Gwen Rose     
Chapter 23. Researching African-Caribbean Mental Health in the UK: An Assets-based Approach to developing psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia and related psychoses; Dawn Edge, Amy Degan and Sonya Rafiq     
Chapter 24. ‘Lone wolf’ case study considerations of terrorist radicalisation from the black experience – impact on mental health; Nicholas Banks  
Chapter 25. Spotlight on Sensory Processing Difficulties; Lisa Prior and Tiffany Howl         
Chapter 26. Forced Marriage as a Representation of a Belief System in the UK and its Psychological Impact on Well-being; Doreen Robinson and Reenee Singh           
Chapter 27. Systemic Family therapy with transgenerational communities   in Haiti and the Dominican Republic; Karen Carberry, Gerald Jean Lafleur and Genel Jean-Claude      
Chapter 28. Engaging with racialized process in clinical supervision. Political or personal; Isha McKenzie-Mavinga 

Editorial Reviews

This Handbook is a landmark in our understanding of the mental health issues which challenge African-heritage populations in Europe (particularly in the UK and the Netherlands) and in North America – countries which imposed slavery on African populations. The racism which survives today is a perpetuation of the values which supported slavery: issues of labelling and victim-blaming continue, and take their toll on minority populations. The 40 activists, clinicians and scholars who contribute chapters to this handbook are well qualified and experienced in their specialist fields and bring their unique insights and knowledge on Black Community Mental Health issues to a Handbook which will be of great value for students, trainees, academics and practitioners from multidisciplinary backgrounds. The authors have also been ably guided and organised by the Handbook’s three editors (two from the US, one from the UK). Overall, there is much quality in the writing, many insights, and bases for further action.

Dr Alice Sawyerr

As far as I am aware this is the first publication of its kind on the experiences and provision of services to the BME community. This in itself is something of a sad statement to make in 2020 after many years of campaigning, analysis, research and policy intervention (I know I have been involved in many of them over the years)we have yet to produce a publication specifically on the issues pertaining to BME mental health. For producing this work the editors should be congratulated. The challenges within these pages are not only for members of the BME community to read, reflect and act. This book is essential reading for any Mental Health practitioner who wishes to understand and practice in system which is beneficial to all regardless of race.

Lord Victor O. Adebowale